AN: Next chapter is up guys and I hope you enjoy it. Reviews and comments are appreciated. I want to thank all the people who have reviewed so far. You guys really make me happy.

AN2: So far for Hikari's chakra affinity, Hyoton (Ice) seems to be in the lead (by a lot actually) with Mokuton (Wood) coming in a not so close second.

I actually have another idea for her chakra so please tell me if you guys like it. I want to try and give Hikari a Blood release ability. Basically, it's a combination of the Suiton (Water) and Jiton (Magnet) used to control the water and iron in the blood. But that would be something not used as often as say a regular Suiton because there's only so much blood a person can use before fainting. It's just a backup option for Hikari and would be named Chiton (Blood).

AN3: And a big thanks to Maxmoquito for catching my mistake on the years part. They have now been fixed and I hope I didn't cause too much confusion.

"Speaking"

'Thinking'

English

Biju speaking

Jutsu/Magical spells

Previously

The boy reluctantly looked closer at her. His eyes widened for a split second. "You're just like me." It was a statement, not a question.

"Yeah."

"Naruto" the boy suddenly said.

Hikari gave a small smile. "Hikari"

Hikari laughed as she tried her best to run away from Naruto during her game of tag. Granted with only 2 people playing, the game couldn't really be called tag. Maybe more like "I chase you, then you chase me." But hey, it was still fun; way better than "Potter Hunting" at least.

She turned her head to better see her chaser. Naruto, instead of wearing his fake smile, had a real smile plastered on his face. He grinned as he closed in and used his last bit of strength to pounce on her. She giggled, something that she hadn't done in years, as they both laid on the grass panting from exertion.

Was this what it felt like to have a friend?

"So…" Hikari finally said to break the comfortable silence.

"Yeah?" the boy responded as he sat up.

"Let's do this again sometime." she said while she fingered a blade of grass. She didn't want to look at Naruto, afraid that he might reject her offer. When she received no answer, Hikari thought that her fears had come true. She risked a glance at the boy, who had lost his happy look.

"We won't." Naruto stated. This had happened way too many times for him to count. Every time he made friends, the next day he would lose them. Whether due to their parents ordering them not to play with him or because random civilians would scare them away, it always happened.

Hikari furrowed her eyebrows in thought. She quickly went through all the information she had on her blond friend, wondering why he would say such a thing. Even though they've only known each other for a few hours, Hikari had already learned a lot about him because of her observant nature. She noticed how the other children stayed away from the boy. How random people would send him glares when they thought she wasn't looking. How his clothes were second hand and how his weapons were poorly made.

From what she could tell, the villagers didn't like the blond. But that didn't matter to her. The people living at Privet Drive didn't like her either and she had done nothing wrong. "We will." she stubbornly replied. "I had fun today. Didn't you?"

"Of course I did!" Naruto shouted with exuberance. "Today was one of the best days in my life. But it doesn't matter what I think. Your guardians will stop you from seeing me again, just watch. The minute you tell them that you were playing with Uzumaki Naruto… well I'm sure you can guess the rest." he finished while gesturing to a nearby old man who happened to be glaring furiously at him.

Hikari sighed as she saw her new friend's defeated state. This must have happened more times than he could count. Why did people have to be so cruel? With a determined look on her face, the girl spoke "Then I won't tell them. If there's a chance that they won't let me play with you again, then I just won't tell them who you are. Besides, I had fun playing with you so even if my guardians tell me to stop, I won't. I'll just sneak out and find you!"

Naruto visibly brightened upon hearing that. He was filled with excitement and hope. The last time he felt that was when his Jiji signed him up for the Academy, although it didn't last long with all the sabotaging the teachers did. "Great! Come on Hika-chan! Let's go play some more!" he yelled as he pulled the girl up.

The adopted Senju raised an eyebrow at the new nickname. "Hika-chan?"

"And you can just call me Naruto-nii, since I'm obviously older than you!" the blond continued, ignoring Hikari's question. He was too excited to care.

Hikari thought for a second. Naruto was an orphan just like her and she could tell that he didn't have enough to eat. She herself needed a full year of a good diet packed with nutrients to bring her up to the size that children her age were supposed to be. If at this size she was the same as Naruto, then it can be said that if he had lived his life with enough quality food, then he would have been way taller. To be able to deduce that he was older than her took a lot of thinking.

Naruto was no average person to be able to figure that out. Inside his goofy smile lies an observant and smart individual; that much Hikari knew for sure. This would definitely be an interesting friendship.

"Sure. Then Naru-nii…" she started only to smirk when the blond boy face faulted at the girly shortening of his name.

"It's Naruto-nii! Naru is such a girly name! Don't call me that." he whined.

Hikari was having so much fun teasing the older boy. Then she remembered something Dudley would always do if he wanted something. The Puppy Dog Eyes: a child's ultimate weapon against people older than him or her. But for Dudley, even though he did it often, it almost never worked so he was always reduced to throwing tantrums.

So Hikari looked deep into the boys eyes and performed her new attack. She might as well practice it for when she needed to use it on her mom. "I can't?"

Naruto twitched as he saw the little girl's face. Her eyes were wide open and tears could be seen coming out, giving it a glistening effect. Her bottom lip was slightly sticking out and trembling. His inner manliness was telling him not to surrender, but he couldn't help but give in. "Fine." he muttered.

Almost instantly, Hikari's face did a 180 and started to beam. Naruto inwardly cursed himself for being so weak. "Don't pull that face, Naru-nii. Come on! Why don't you teach me how to throw a kunai!" Hikari said, trying to make the boy feel better.

It worked because a moment later Naruto was also beaming, happy to be able to teach his new found friend something he loved.

-Konoha Rooftops-

Inu was frantically hopping on the rooftops of the village, trying to find some clue as to where the kid was. His trusty nin-dog, Pakkun, was ahead of him tracking the girl's scent. He had gone into the compound and picked up a random piece of clothing from the laundry basket, never noticing that what he picked didn't even belong to the girl. He was too preoccupied to thoroughly check.

As if things couldn't get worse, the scent was evidently leading them towards the Hokage Tower. He just hoped to Kami that the Hokage or, Kami forbid, Tsunade-sama herself hadn't seen the girl yet. Otherwise, he could literally kiss his manliness goodbye.

"Kakashi, the girl should be just around the corner." Pakkun said as he slowed down and waited for the man to catch up.

Inu let out a sigh of relief. They were still far from both the Hokage Tower and the Hospital. He just needed to convince the kid to keep this whole ordeal a secret. Maybe he could bribe her with something? He snuck a glance at his summons partner. Kids loved playing with puppies right?

"Thanks, Pakkun. You can go ahead and go home." Inu said as he slowed his pace down. No need to scare the kid if things were going to work out.

"Alright then, laters" the nin-dog responded before poofing out of existence.

Inu took a deep breath and rounded the corner….and walked right into someone. 'Wait a minute. The girl should be only 6 years old, how is she this tall?' he thought as he used his hands to feel the person before him.

Suddenly, he felt an immense amount of killing intent. "Kakashi…you better have a good reason for this." an irate voice growled out.

Inu felt his heart skip a beat. He knew that voice. It was the very one that he had hoped to avoid at all costs. He backed up to get a closer look at the person.

Yep, it was definitely her.

Senju Tsunade stood before him with a tick mark visible on her forehead. She had just gone through a stressing day at the hospital. Some of those doctors shouldn't be allowed to clean the bed pans, let alone try to heal people.

"Tsunade-sama!" Inu stuttered out and saluted the Slug Sannin. He wasn't on the ground in pain yet so he could only assume that she didn't know about her adopted daughter going missing. "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. My apologies."

The blond Senju just waved it off. "It's alright. Had a hard day at work, right? I had a stressful day at work as well, so I can understand. Did you have a mission?"

Inu thanked his lucky stars that the Sannin didn't know what his mission was. He forced down his nervousness and replied, "Actually, I'm still working on the mission right now." Not a complete lie, but also not the whole truth.

"Oh? Then I won't keep you" Tsunade said and was just about to walk away when her eyes zoomed onto the thing currently being held in the ANBU's left hand. It looked so familiar, but she couldn't remember from where. She took a closer look and noticed a symbol on it.

Then, it clicked. "Tell me, Kakashi. Is there a particular reason why you're holding my underwear?" she hissed out, doing her best to control her temper.

Inu's eyes widened at the new piece of information. This day was just getting worse and worse. "I…uh. I found it?" It came out more of a question than an answer.

Tsunade glared at the man. "Where did you find it? In my laundry room? Because that's exactly where I put it this morning."

The ANBU visibly gulped and tried to stutter out an answer. "Yes…I mean, No! I…"

"Honestly, what was the ANBU on guard thinking? When I get my hands on him…" Tsunade started, but stopped and narrowed her eyes. "Wait a minute. Weren't you supposed to be the ANBU on guard?"

Inu wanted to find a door and just bang his head repeatedly. This day really sucked.

Two hours later, both children could be found breathing hard and lying on the ground once again. Out of nowhere, they heard a loud piercing shriek.

Hikari shot up and looked around. "What was that?"

"Dunno. A cat?" the blond boy responded with a shrug.

"Must've been a dying cat then, to make a sound like that."

They continued to converse, breaching many different topics. Finally, they began to talk about Hikari's adopted home life. After all, Naruto had always dreamed that one day he would be adopted by a loving family. Since by now, he knew he would never get one, he wanted to know what it felt like. Hikari went on to explain that even though it was great, sometimes it could be suffocating.

"They never let me out of the stupid compound!" she exclaimed.

Naruto raised an eyebrow and questioned the girl. "If they never let you out, then how are you here?" Neither of the children noticed a figure walking closer and closer to them.

Hikari grinned a cheshire-like grin. "I snuck out. It was so easy too!" she was just about to explain what she did when a shadow suddenly loomed over them.

"Oh? You did, did you?" a familiar voice spoke out.

Hikari shivered at the tone and slowly turned to see the owner of the voice. There standing behind her was a very pissed off looking Tsunade. "Uh-oh…"

"Uh-oh, is right brat. You are in so much trouble."

The fourth deviation from the plan was when Catherine began to learn about a power different from magic.

You see, Dumbledore was a man of many talents; and one of them was making up back-up plans. If the girl got too out of hand, all he had to do was bind her magic. Then, she would fade away into the background. After all, what can a person who had the magic levels of a Muggle ever do?

But, Catherine learned how to utilize chakra, which was completely different from magic. If chakra was the combination of both yin and yang energies, then magic was just the usage of yin energy. Charka was too used to the balance between the two forces. So, if Dumbledore even attempted to bind Catherine's magic, her yang energy would immediately attack said binds and dissolve them.

Now that Catherine had another means of power, she was even less controllable. Dumbledore could no longer tempt her with knowledge of magic since she knew of something just as powerful.

-June 1, 1989-

It's been two years since that faithful meeting that changed the life of two children. Two years since Hikari made her first friend. Two years since Inu was sent to the hospital for a month and Tsunade found Hikari in the park on her way home. Two years since Hikari managed to convince her adopted mom to let her attend the Academy. Her official excuse was to make friends but what she really wanted to do was spend time with her surrogate big brother.

Convincing the Slug Sannin was not easy and it took Hikari busting out her Puppy Dog Eyes for Tsunade to finally give in. But, it was worth it.

Hikari took to the Shinobi lessons like fish to water. Her drive to become stronger so that she would never be as helpless as she was back in her old home helped her a lot. Since children usually started the Academy at age 8, Hikari's classmates were all bigger than her. But, her mastery of the lessons, both theoretical and practical, made people think twice before trying to bully her.

Because of her competitive nature, Tsunade refused to let her daughter be anything but the top Kunoichi of the year. After all, the girl was being trained by one of the legendary Sannin. So, on top of her regular Academy training, which was going too slow in Hikari's opinion, she was also trained in Medical Ninjutsu when her control was deemed good enough and basic Kenjutsu.

Halfway through Hikari's first school year, Tsunade deemed her ready to learn the Senju Family's Taijutsu. It was a style based on the 5 elements itself, effectively called the Fist of the 5 Elements. The main point of the style was to show that each element could be adapted into different stances. And from these stances, katas could be made. It was said to be an unbeatable style if one could master all 5 stances.

Hikari took to spending a lot of her free time in the Senju Family Library, which contained way more information than the regular library. It was there where the girl first learned of the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, a technique where the user could make solid clones and learn everything the clones learn. But, Hikari knew that she didn't have enough chakra to perform it so she saved it for later.

Her advance reading, coupled with the fact that she spent most of her left over time training with Naruto, allowed her to advance faster than her classmates.

The Academy was a 6 year program during peace time and a 2 year program during war time. But, there have been students who have graduated in under a year of training, like Hatake Kakashi who became the youngest graduate at age 5. Periodically after that, there have been many children that have been hailed as 'prodigies' who have graduated way before their time.

Hikari was hailed as one of these 'prodigies' because of how fast she mastered the material and was allowed to skip grades after taking an assessment test. But, she started to feel bad as she continued to advance. Not because she was better than the other students, but because someone that she knew was at her level if not better, wasn't allowed the same opportunity. It didn't surprise either of them though. Both Hikari and Naruto knew that the teachers would rather die than pass Naruto. It was just one of those things that you have to get used to.

Naruto didn't mind that his surrogate little sister had passed him in the Academy. If anything, he was proud. He would go through all 6 years without complaint. Let's see them fail a student who scored a perfect on the exam.

And now at age 8, 2 years after starting the Academy, Hikari was about to take the Genin Exam. She was about to take her first steps into the real world.

But, throughout all this time, Hikari forgot about something important. She forgot about the very thing that had saved her life countless of times. She forgot about her "Wish Magic." Now it wasn't all her fault. Since her Magic core took so long to refill, she got used to not relying on it and eventually forgot about it altogether.